Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 23:56:34 -0700 From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com> To: scott.mitchell@mail.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Some h/w recommendations please... Message-ID: <F132ZrIkyPzGNsokLQ8000146b4@hotmail.com>
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>On Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 03:26:40AM -0700, Charles Burns wrote: > > As far as AthlonXP chips, I generally recommend that people get >motherboards > > that use 100% AMD chipsets (both southbridge and northbridge). Most AMD > > stability problems that have popped up over the years seem to be from >VIA > > chipsets. While the AMD760 isn't the fastest chipset on earth, and while >it > > has been end-of-life'd by AMD recently, it is mature and reliable. The > > alternatives are the VIA KT-266A (the fastest available now), the SIS > > chipset... Which is made by SIS... Which has a horrible track record, >and > > then the NVidia NForce, which is so immature that it doesn't yet >actually > > exist in the form of a buyable product. > >Are there any such boards? All the so-called AMD760 boards I've seen >reviewed have used a VIA southbridge, supposedly for cost reasons... of >course I haven't really looked much at the higher end stuff like the Tyan >MP boards (overkill for my new workstation, I think). > >Your post just confirmed most of the component choices I'm about to lay out >a bunch of money on, so many thanks for brightening my day :-) > > Scott Umm, gee I actually thing that the Tyan's are the only boards that use a pure AMD760 chipset. I thought there were more, like there were with the older AMD750 chipset, but I just started looking and...Nope. The specific motherboard that I recommend for you is the Abit KG-7. It is the only non dual-CPU board that supports all 4 memory slots, is rock solid, has optional IDE RAID (big whoop with Vinum and all, but always nice if you are also going to use Windows) and it has a fairly good price. It does use the VIA southbridge, but from reading up on the lastest BIOS updates, there are no known problems with this now. Please note that you can get the Tyan TigerMP motherboard for about $80 more, and have the option to get a second CPU in the future. I use this board now. Other than the fact that it absolutely hates to have an Intel Pro/100+ management NIC in PCI slot + 6 when running Windows, it is an extremely stable board. Most boards are extremely stable nowadays, fortunately. Just a few years ago, mobo manufacturers made their reputations on building rock solid boards while most manufacturers forgot the "stability" part. It seems the technology has matured enough that this is less of a problem. (I would still get a board from a top 5 manufacturer though) Charles Burns _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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